Motherhood good for Serena as eighth title beckons
LONDON: Serena Williams demonstrated that having a baby had not robbed her of any of her phenomenal tennis skills when she became the first mother in 38 years to reach the Wimbledon final with a 6-2, 6-4 demolition of Germany’s Julia Goerges yesterday.
Goerges had come into her first Grand Slam semi-final having belted more winners (199), more aces (44) and more unreturned serves (113) than anyone else in the women’s draw, but those statistics counted for little when she came up against an opponent who is in hot pursuit of a record-equalling 24th major.
Remarkably, the 36-year-old was back in a Grand Slam final just 10 months after giving birth to her daughter Alexis Olympia.
“It’s crazy. I don’t even know how to feel because I literally didn’t think I’d do this well in my fourth tournament back in 16 months,” said the American, who won the 2017 Australian Open while in the early stages of her pregnancy.
“When I don’t have anything to lose, I can just play so free. This is not inevitable for me, I had a really tough delivery and multiple surgeries and almost didn’t make it, to be honest. I couldn’t even walk to my mailbox, so it’s definitely not normal for me to be in a Wimbledon final. I’m enjoying every moment.”
That enjoyment was clear to see as she dashed Goerges’s hopes of setting up an all-German final with Angelique Kerber in 70 unforgiving minutes.
The 13th seed had never taken a set off Williams in three previous meetings and unfortunately for her, the American was once again at her dominant best yesterday as she bludgeoned down five aces and 16 winners to finish off Goerges.
In each set Goerges was broken in the sixth game and she simply did not have the firepower or belief to stop the seven-time champion from surging to a 20th successive win on the hallowed turf.
Williams was back giving the crowd a one-arm raised victory twirl after reaching a 10th Wimbledon final when her opponent swiped a lob behind the baseline.
At 181st in the world, Williams is the lowest ranked player to reach the women’s final but that number will fool no one, and especially not Kerber who was runner-up to the American in the 2016 final.
German Kerber proved too solid for error-strewn Latvian Jelena Ostapenko as she reached her second Wimbledon final with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.
The 30-year-old was gifted point after point as Ostapenko’s aggressive game backfired in a blaze of unforced errors. A tight tussle looked in store at 3-3 in the first set but when Ostapenko fired a forehand long to drop serve, the match quickly ran away from her. - Reuters